Lafayette football notebook: Stats, quotes, etc.

Just for fun, here's a chart listing national rank for Lafayette and Lehigh within the Football Championship Subdivision. Number of schools ranked: 120.

NATIONAL RANKING

LEHIGH LAFAYETTE

Rushing defense...............................7 78

Passing defense...............................83 56

Total defense....................................17 75

Scoring defense...............................11 71

Passing efficiency def.......................13 54

Rushing offense.................................7 99

Passing offense.................................1 31

Total offense...................................... 1 73

Scoring offense................................T-14 T-79

Turnover margin…..........................T-44 T-107

Turnovers lost..................................T-62 T-83

Turnovers gained...........................T-29 T-115

3rd-down Conversion.........................24 65

4th-down Conversion........................31 8

Red Zone offense............................92 101

Red Zone defense...........................71 105

Sacks..............................................T-9 T-106

Sacks allowed...............................T-31 T-77

It’s hard to believe it has been more than three months since I sat in the Fargodome as Lafayette opened the football season against a team that would go on to become No. 1 in the country for a couple of weeks. The Leopards’ defense played toe-to-toe with the North Dakota State offense for nearly all of the first half, but the Bison flexed its muscles in the second half and pulled away for a 42-6 victory.

As far as I’m concerned, that game was the only one all year in which Lafayette was totally outclassed. Sure, there were a couple of other lopsided games, but they were not as much a matter of the opponents’ strength as they were Lafayette’s own stumbles – three turnovers and 16 penalties against Harvard and seven turnovers against Bucknell, for example.

In the print edition of the Saturday paper, I have a column telling what I think Lafayette must do to score the upset Saturday. I won’t go into that again. Instead, I’m going to clear out the notebook from the media luncheon earlier in the week. Here goes.

COACH T ON THE FEELING OF A LEHIGH 0-FER – Lehigh won seven games in a row in the late 90s and early 2000s, which means that four classes of Leopards went 0-for-4 against the Brown and White. “Fortunately, we were able to return that favor in my time here,” Tavani said, speaking of Lafayette’s four straight wins from 2004-2007. “They had seniors that didn’t beat Lafayette. I read the story about (former Lehigh defensive star) Nick Martucci about about winning four. It’s something people take with great pride, but every year is different. I don’t really put any more emphasis on kids who left here without a victory over Lehigh. It’s just one of those things. After you graduate, there are so many other important things. After that, it’s bragging rights at some gathering years down the road. But this team has a lot of pride; they restored their pride, their purpose and their passion. Our seniors want to erase that part of it, but I don’t make a huge thing about it.”

BEN EATON, SAME SUBJECT – “It’s extremely frustrating, especially with the way the things went. My freshman and sophomore year being favored and being upset, but anytime you lose to those guys it hurts. I think it’s extra incentive for the senior class to go out in this manner and have a win over Lehigh, having not beaten them since we’ve been here.

SEVERAL PLAYERS ON WHAT THEY WILL TELL FRESHMEN GOING INTO THIS GAME – Brandon Ellis said, “Don’t change anything you do. Weekly routine. Nothing out of the ordinary.” Kyle Hayes said, “When you’re out there, take a step back and enjoy it. Take it all in. I’ve done that every year. It puts a smile on your face looking at the situation you’re in and you’re never going to be in a situation like that in your life.” Matt Welch said, “Savor the moment. It’s a great rivalry that not too many people get to be a part of. On the other hand, it is a football game and we’ve played 10 already so not to get too far ahead of themselves. They’ve been here before. It will just be a little wilder with a lot more people there.” Ben Eaton said, “I agree with Kyle. Take a second to enjoy the game. I can’t believe it’s my fourth time being in this game. It goes by fast. That’s definitely one of the reasons I came to Lafayette, to play in this football game. So take a second to enjoy it.”

MATT WELCH ON THIS BEING HIS LAST GAME – “It kind of snuck up on me. I can’t play football forever, so I have to savor last time out there. I started playing flag football when I was seven and tackle when I was eight. I’m not really (very emotional). My last game will be upsetting, but I don’t think I’ll be one of those guys crying in the locker room. I’m gonna miss it a lot.. (When I come out of the locker room), it may be in the back of my mind, but I’m not thinking about it too much.”

BRANDON ELLIS ON LEHIGH’S 2009 OT WIN AT GOODMAN -- “It was heartbreaking, a lot of moments in that game, but the deciding factor being the intercepted pass in overtime. That’s always gonna stick out in my head. Give credit to them; they played a great game. I remember the play like it was yesterday. When the ball was in the air and (Al Pierce) intercepted it, everything seemed like slow motion. I just take and use that as motivation, and then losing again my junior year. This is the last hurrah.” Matt Welch said about the same play: “Even though I wasn’t on the field, it still bothers me, may not at the same level as the guys who played in that game but it was definitely a game that stays with you and you’ll never forget.”

COACH T ON LEHIGH AND THE GAME -- . “Hats off to them and to Andy Coen and his staff. They will do a great job representing our league and have all year given the Patriot League a lot of recognition. Lafayette-Lehigh is really the second season, or in our case, the bowl game. It’s our arch-rival, a historic game we take very seriously. I remind frosh that they are going to be part of history. I am total honored going into my 25th. That’s nowhere near some of our alumni, but it takes on a lot of significance. My job is to keep everybody as calm as I can until kickoff and not play the game during the week. We are a huge underdog. We have a lot of respect for that football team, but we will go out and give our best effort. (A win) would be huge for our seniors as well as our younger classes; it catapults you into the offseason. And for them, being champions, it’s huge for them as well. So, we have to take a minute or two to enjoy it.”

KYLE HAYES ON WHAT HE KNEW ABOUT LEHIGH-LAFAYETTE AND ABOUT BEING RECRUITED – “I knew it was a big rivalry, but I didn’t know the magnitude. I heard the name Lehigh a lot more than Lafayette when I was growing up. I knew there was some sort of rivalry. A never went to a (Lehigh-Lafayette) game, but I knew about it. As soon as I got the first letter from Lafayette, I looked up the school, where it was ranked on Forbes. Brian Wycinowski was my host. He was great. I still talk to him every once in a while. His dad still comes to games and my dad talks to him. He helped me a lot, answered all my questions -- and I had a lot of them. He was definitely one of the reasons I ended up coming here.”

OTHER SATURDAY GAMES OF NOTE

It’s easy to think that Lafayette-Lehigh is the only game that matters Saturday. It matters a lot for the Leopards, who are trying to avoid sending another class through its career without a victory over the Brown and White. And it matters to Lehigh because the game will have bearing on its positioning in the FCS postseason tournament. That field will be determined on Sunday.

Several other games on Saturday involve 2011 opponents of Lafayette and Lehigh and some of them have national ramifications.

BIG SOUTH -- Liberty and Stony Brook, both 7-3 overall and 5-0 in the Big South, meet at 3:30 p.m. Saturday in Stony Brook’s Lavalle Stadium for the automatic FCS tournament berth. Liberty dropped a 27-24 decision to Lehigh, while Stony Brook defeated Lafayette 37-20 earlier this season. Liberty is ranked 16th in both recognized FCS national polls, while the Seawolves are not in the Top 25 – they are 30th in one, 34th in the other. Despite all of that, however, Stony Brook has the higher Gridiron Power Index, so it will be interesting to see what happens is Liberty wins the conference showdown. Would Stony Brook get one of the 10 at-large berths? The conference is not highlighy rated – in fact, among the 15 leagues and conferences represented in the FCS, the Big South is ranked No. 11. The Patriot League is ranked No. 7.

MISSOURI VALLEY -- North Dakota State now must win its game Saturday against Western Illinois – oh how I remember the Leathernecks – to clinch the Missouri Valley title. The Bison was upset by Youngstown State last week and dropped from No. 1 to No. 5 in both The Sports Network and the coaches’ polls. Youngstown State is not even among the Top 25. NDSU and Northern Iowa are tied for first place in the Missouri Valley with 6-1 records, and UNI meets Illinois State today. If NDSU and UNI finish in a tie, NDSU gets the bid because of its 27-19 win over UNI.

COLONIAL – Maine is 8-2 overall and 6-1 in the conference’s North Division and has a one-game lead over New Hampshire (7-3, 5-2). They meet at noon Saturday at New Hampshire. In the South Division, Towson is 8-2 overall and 5-1 in the conference, while James Madison is 6-4, 4-2. Towson closes out with Rhode Island (3-7, 2-4). In The Sports Network national poll, Towson is ranked No. 8, Maine No. 11 and New Hampshire No. 12. In the coaches’ poll, Towson is No. 10, Maine No. 11 and New Hampshire No. 13.

IVY -- Harvard (8-1, 6-0 Ivy League) has already clinched its 14th Ivy championship; now it would like to get a fifth straight victory in the 128th renewal of “The Game” in the Yale Bowl. Yale is 5-4 overall and 4-2 in the league. Of course, the Ivies do not send their champion to the postseason tournament. Harvard whipped Lafayette 31-3; Yale was beaten by both Lehigh (37-7) and Lafayette (28-19).

FCS GENERAL -- Montana State goes into the final week of the season as the No. 1-ranked team in the FCS polls, but there is a good chance that even a victory in the final game will not be good enough to give it the top seed in the postseason tournament. See, one of the Bobcats’ victories was over a Division II opponent, and that doesn’t sit well with something called the Gridiron Power Index, which is one of the factors in determining at-large berths in the tournament. North Dakota State, which was upset by Youngstown State last week for its first loss, still has the best GPI rating in the FCS. If the field for the tournament was based on just the GPI, the Missouri Valley and Colonial would get four teams each because they have four ranked in the top 20. The Southern Conference has five teams ranked in the Top 20 GPI; Big Sky has three, Southland two and the Patriot and Ivy leagues one each – but, interestingly, the top GPI team in the Ivy is Brown, not Harvard.